The continuing tussle over the future of AquaBounty Technology’sgenetically modified salmon is heating up again this week, as a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard prepares to hear testimony on Thursday addressing the potential environmental impacts and safety issues surrounding the salmon—including risks to wild fish stocks.

“Any time you have a Senate hearing, it’s a big deal,” says Senator and committee chair Mark Begich (D-AK). “People are watching this to see if there is support or not. We wanted to make sure the scientific information was on the table.”

“We can’t ban [the GE fish] through our process, but we can limit it from being moved from one state to the next,” he says.

The Atlantic salmon, known as AquAdvantage, has been genetically modified with a growth hormone taken from a Chinook salmon and a genetic on-switch from an ocean pout, allowing the fish to grow faster than traditional farm-raised salmon. Should it get the nod from the FDA, it will be the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption.

“The [Talking Points Memo] story was false. This application is still pending and we do not have any information on a timeline,” says FDA spokesperson Siobhan DeLancey. “We can’t comment on where the application is in the process, but no, it has not received an approval.”

DeLancey says no one from the FDA had been asked to testify at tomorrow’s hearing.

Scheduled to speak is Dr. John Epifanio, Illinois Natural History Survey; Paul Greenberg, journalist and author of Four Fish; George Leonard, Ocean Conservancy; and Ron Stotish, president and CEO of AquaBounty.

The conversation is likely to be heated.

George Leonard, aquaculture program director for Ocean Conservancy, says an important point of contention is that in seeking FDA approval, AquaBounty only conducted an ecological assessment, rather than the more rigorous environmental impact statement.

“The process by which the FDA is regulating GE animals and fish is behind closed doors,” says Leonard. “Consumers should be concerned. The standards we set for ourselves today is the precedent for how thoroughly or not we evaluate the next application for GE fish or the next species that comes down the line. We need regulators to set a really high bar for the economic, environmental and societal costs and benefits of taking such a path —and right now, that’s not happening, and the American people, frankly, deserve better,” says Leonard.

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